Sixth new South Florida condo project completed since crash

A sixth new condo tower was completed in South Florida since the devastating real estate crash of 2007.

In late May, the 43-story Regalia condominium in the northern end of Sunny Isles Beach concluded construction more than two-and-a-half years after work first began in October 2011, according to Miami-Dade County records. Regalia, which features one condo per residential floor for a total of 39 units with a total “net” of more than 202,300 square feet, is the first new tower to be built in Sunny Isles since developers created more 28 towers with more than 6,200 condo units between 2003 and 2010.

Less than 50 developer units remain unsold in Sunny Isles Beach from the last boom-and-bust cycle as of March 31, according to an analysis of government records. Regalia is said to be “95 percent sold” under preconstruction contracts, with the minimum asking price of the remaining units starting at more than $1,575 per square foot, according to the latest Developer Pricing Survey conducted by the preconstruction condo project website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure purposes, my firm operates the website.)

For comparison, the Sunny Isles condo market now has nearly 450 units in oceanfront towers on the resale market at an average price of more than $850 per square foot, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.

With Regalia now finished, Sunny Isles developers are proposing an additional 13 towers with more than 1,765 units in the 1.02-square-mile city in northeast Miami-Dade County.

At least six of the proposed towers accounting for more than 715 units are already under construction in Sunny Isles, according to CraneSpotters.com. Overall, developers are proposing 237 new South Florida condo towers with 33,110 units east of I-95 in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties as of May 30.

The six completed towers to date account for only 480 units. An additional 66 towers with nearly 7,475 units are currently under construction in South Florida. This total excludes the proposed Biscayne Beach condo tower in Greater Downtown Miami, which is scheduled to hold a groundbreaking ceremony this week.

The unanswered question going forward is how the completion of the ultra-luxury Regalia condo tower will impact future pricing of preconstruction condo projects in the active markets of Sunny Isles and South Florida.

Peter Zalewski is real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.